~Inside the royal palace~

“Your majesty,” A retainer shouted urgently, rushing to and preceding to kneel to his king. “Lord Montesse has arrived! Should I show him in?”

The king, a bearded man in his late 40s, turned around and stared at his retainer, his silver eyes staring daggers at the man’s kneeling form. An arm flew out from his royal robe, tossing the robe back behind him.

“Of course,” The king said in a deep voice. “Show him in immediately and bring him here.”

The retainer nodded and scurried off to let Lord Montesse in. Moments later, Lord Montesse came striding in, his face grave. He walked up to the king and gave his salute. He looked into his king’s eyes and asked: “What is this about Harold being poisoned?”

The king’s face creased as he heard this comment from Lord Montesse. He sighed and faced Lord Montesse with utmost seriousness: “Levain, I won’t lie to you. An assassin masquerading as a cook. He managed to slip poison into the food, but we have already caught and killed him.”

“If you already have him, then why have you called me here? You should have already found an antidote. Even if you haven’t, there is still the last resort.”

The king grimaced at these words. “That… We have a problem.”

Levain’s face immediately darkened. “It hasn’t worked?”

“Correct.”

“That’s impossible! You and I both know that the Philter of the Goddess can cure any sickness, poison or wound, there is no way that it can’t work!”

“Well it has!” The king roared in anger. “I don’t know why either! As soon as he was given a drop of the Philter, it immediately disintegrated! Such a thing should be impossible, but it happened! I don’t know what else to do!”

The king was breathless after venting, taking deep breaths to regain his composure. Levain’s face was black with anger. Not at the king, but at both the assassin and the creator of the poison which even the Philter of the Goddess could not cure. The Philter of the Goddess was said to be able to cure any ailment that had befallen a person. And til this day, that legend has not been proven wrong. Levain looked up at the king and grabbed his shoulders. The king looked up at Levain in surprise.

“Old friend,”Levain said sternly, showing great misconduct in front of a king. “I have someone that may be able to help. I’m sure if he will help, but even if he won’t, I’m sure he knows someone who will. I will get him and bring him here.”

The king stared up at him in shock. But as a king, he was able to regain his composure fairly quickly. “Thank you, Levain. I’ll be sure to pay back your friend in full.”

Levain nodded and left the room. After he left, the king sat down on an armchair. He put his hand up to has face and rubbed his temples. A frown once again appeared on his face. That frown soon turned into a grimace, but he sighed and murmured: “Levain… That friend of yours, I really hope he can do something.”

~In the center courtyard~

“ONE OF YOU AT A TIME PLEASE!!” Neo shouted desperately, trying to get a horde of children to calm down.

By this time, the group of children he was in charge of had finally stopped mobbing him. However, they had not asked any of their questions. Currently, they were trying to ask every question they knew at the same time. Neo had been distressed, so he told them all to quiet down. It didn’t work, as his voice was too quiet. Eventually, he couldn’t take it anymore and shouted as loudly as he could without bursting eardrums. This had succeed in quieting down the children to a point where he could manage it.

“Okay,” Neo said, his voice much quieter now. “Please raise your hand so I can call on you. And no saying ‘me, me, me!’ Alright?”

“Yes, Enigma sir!” Was the unanimous answer.

“Don’t call me that...” Neo said weakly.

He looked up at the kids, all of which had their hands raised. At random he chose one kid, a boy with brown hair and eager green eyes. The boy stood, practically jumped, up and opened his mouth. “Where do you come from?!”

“America.” Neo blandly said.

“Where’s that?”

“Only one question per person.”

The boy wined, but sat back down obediently. As soon as he sat down, the tiny hands of little kids flew into the air, missing just one of their previous number. Neo grimaced, but chose another kid from the crowd. The child stood up and asked a question. “Where’s America?!” It was obviously a continuation of the previous child’s question.

“On Earth, a planet far away from here.” Once again, an emotionless answer.

“So are you an alien?” Another child asked, at this point, not waiting to raise his hand.

“Eh...” Neo struggled with the question. “Well, it depends on how you look at it. In reality our species aren’t so different, possibly even the same, just our home planet is different. So yes and no.”

“Are you strong?” How smooth, little one.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

“Strength is based on perception. To you, I am strong. To me, I am weak. To god, I am puny. Look at those around you. Let’s say one of them practices martial arts. He is good at them, so he is strong. To you, that is. I could turn him black and blue with just a flick, so to me, he is weak. That is why, strength is an illusion, reality or fiction, this rule remains the same.”

The child seemed stunned. Normal for a young child, it was likely he didn’t understand. Neo had thought about things that would be considered high-level for even imperial scholars. If the child wasn’t lost, it would be weird. Every child that listened was unable to speak for a bit. Their minds couldn’t wrap around the idea that Neo had spoken of. A few smarter ones were able to grasp the basics of what he said, and those were the ones that followed up with a question.

“I heard some people in the neighborhood talk about inspirational phrases. Do you know what they are?” One child asked.

“They are phrases that make a group of people want to do a certain thing, like fight a war or join an organization. An example would be the old war posters asking you to join the war.” Neo said flatly.

“Do you have one?” Another child asked.

“Yes. It was from a famous person named Gandhi from back home. He once said that, ‘whatever you do in life will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it, because nobody else will.’”

“Who’s Gandhi?” Once again, a different child asked.

“A peace loving person who played a very important part in history. Although he’s dead now.”

“I heard that Enigmas have a screen thingy that tells them about stuff, what is it?”

“It’s called a status screen, it shows details about different items. For a person, it’ll show their name, gender, occupation- I mean job, class if they have one, level, and what equipment they have on. The last one was is only if the other person allows you to see that, or if you have a high enough skill. Item identification shows the name of the item, type of item, description, amount of money it’s worth, and rank.”

“How do you rank it?”

“Well, the system ranks it, but it is divided into different classes, not like the one I mentioned earlier, however. The classes are, from lowest to highest: common, uncommon, rare, exceptional, extraordinary, unique, peerless, mastercrafted, artifact, ancient, and mythos. There might be something better, but I don’t care.”

“Why did it get older? Like it went from mastercrafted to artifact to ancient, why did it get older?”

“I don’t know.”

“D-do y-y-you have a g-g-g-g-g-girlfriend?!” The girl that called Neo hot asked this question.

“…And that is my cue to leave. Bye!” Neo said quickly.

Neo turned to his left and made a large jump away. He landed yards away from the tree, already near the exit. He gave the kids a wave and ran out of the courtyard, leaving the kids to want him back and the girl to stand in embarrassment. The girl quietly sat back down and made herself invisible. Not literally, just blending into the crowd the best she could.

Neo had ran all the way to the market area, halfway across the city, generating a strong wind current the entire way. It flipped girls’ skirts and blow dried wet clothing. It was forever called the Event of Mixed Fortune. Of course, such a trivial thing was never recorded in history books, as such unexplained Events were commonplace at the time. It was never discovered who caused the Events of Mixed Fortune, but it could all e related to the same group, which had formed during the high time of Events.

As Neo was resting up against the wall of an inn, drinking out of a flask, a person walked up to him, leaning on the wall perpendicular to his. This person was a tall one, standing at around 6’ 6”. They had a simple gray shirt and pants, with worn-down boots to match. They had blonde hair cropped short just below the neck and two pointed ears could be seen. They had green eyes that were reminiscent of the woods, as well as a curious look in the eyes. Just looking at the person would make someone think that they were sculpted by a divine being, which is, in part, true. This person was a player of LOWG, so it was indeed true that the body was sculpted carefully.

The artwork person reach out a hand, unnoticed by Neo, and quickly punched Neo in the stomach. Neo reacted violently, with water spraying out of his mouth. His flask of water fell to the ground, spilling all the water on his clothes. He doubled over and reached for his sword, an instinctive action, but stopped himself midway and instead, sent a kick to reach the other wall, and felt his foot hit something. He drew back his foot and let the thing he hit fall to the ground and join his now empty flask. Neo quickly used appraisal on him:

Lycar Dullahan Lvl.179 Gender: Male Occupation: Unemployed Class: Weapon Saint

“Lycar?” Neo asked. “What are doing? You know very well my instincts would make you fall to the ground. Actually, while your down there, lick my boots as an apology, would you?”

“Hell no,” Lycar grunted as he got up. “Who knows what kind of dirt you have on your boots, there’s no way I’d lick something that disgusting!”

“Are you saying you’d lick it if I just washed it?”

“Yes, it’s very expensive boots, so why wouldn’t I?” Lycar made an innocently confused face

Neo laughed. “You’re as weird as normal, Lycar.”

“And you haven’t changed a bit, Neo.”

Neo picked up his flask and dusted it off. Lycar grinned and gave a chuckle, which earned him another kick from Neo. Lycar once again fell to the ground, only this time, nothing else was needed to be said to understand he messed up. He hopped off the ground and dusted himself off. He turned to Neo and asked: “You wanna go get some food?”

Neo shrugged and answered: “Sure, I’ve got nothing better to do, and I was planning to eat anyway.”

Lycar gave a wide smile and gestured for Neo to follow him. Lycar walked to the other side of the street and went behind a building. Neo gave him a confused look, but Lycar jumped up onto the building and once again made a gesture to follow. Neo sighed and jumped up after him. They ran atop the buildings, Lycar leading the way. Later, when Neo asked him why he did that, Lycar would respond: “Because I didn’t want to get caught in traffic.”

…

Neo and Lycar both ordered the Flame Duck Steak and were currently eating at a speed no mortal could ever hope to achieve. Despite the godly speed of their eating, both managed to exchange a few words. However, it was casual small talk, and no long questions or answers, proving that their godly eating speed did have drawbacks. After finishing the 32 ounce steak, Lycar told Neo a shocking bit of news: “Neo, my clan wants you to teach the newbies at the training facility.”

Neo, who was wiping his mouth with his napkin, froze instantly, his napkin leaving his hand. He then took that same hand and held it in front of Lycar’s face. It was the universal symbol for ‘shut-up-for-a-moment-and-let-me-talk.’ Neo cleared his throat: “You know me and they know me, it makes no sense why they would ask, so it probably isn’t that good.”

Lycar made a complicated face. “It’s not that, we’re just low on good teachers.”

“You seem to be having fun wasting your time though?”

“We both know what it would like for me to be a teacher.”

“… Are you sure that you can’t have someone else do it?”

“To be honest, you are 7th on our list of possible candidates, so yes, we have a few more.”

“There’s a list…?”

“But, you’re very good at teaching, even if you can’t deal with young people.”

“Technically, I’m quite young you know?”

“You know what I mean.”

“Fine, I’ll consider it, but have a backup because I might just quit. IF I say yes.”

“Thanks man.”

“But this is only because I owe you. Your clan certainly knows how to get people to do what they want...”

“That’s why I joined them.”

“Of course.”

“Well, how about we split here?”

“Sure, I need to visit my home here again, see if there’s mice. I really don’t hope I have to get them out again...”

“Mice? Wait, wasn’t there an event related to mice? One where someone had a mouse in their house, and it turned out to be a whole colony of demon mice instead? Was that by chance you?”

“… Uh, no, of course not, that makes no sense! I mean, why would there just happen to be a colony of demon mice below your house, it’s not like it’s my fault or anything.”

“You need to fix your lying.”

“Well, bye!”

“See ya”

Neo and Lycar went their separate ways. Lycar went to report to his clan and Neo to clean his house. When Neo arrived, he found a soldier standing outside. He was curious, but not threatened, so he felt fine walking up to him.

“What are you doing?” Neo asked the soldier, who turned around to face him.

“I have a letter for you, sir.” The soldier said.

“From who?”

“The Imperial Tutor, Lord Levain Montesse. Here it is, sir.” The soldier held out a letter to Neo, who took it.

“From the old man…?” Neo pondered.

“I am to escort you to the royal palace after you have received the letter. Please come with me, sir.”

“Yeah,” Neo said, absentmindedly. Then to himself, “What does the old man need from me? He wouldn’t do it unless it’s an emergency, but I haven’t anything… How weird.”